Journal article
Dental fluorosis and skeletal fluoride content as biomarkers of excess fluoride exposure in marsupials
Clare Death, Graeme Coulson, Uwe Kierdorf, Horst Kierdorf, William K Morris, Jasmin Hufschmid
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT | ELSEVIER | Published : 2015
Abstract
Particulate and gaseous fluoride emissions contaminate vegetation near fluoride-emitting industries, potentially impacting herbivorous wildlife in neighboring areas. Dental fluorosis has been associated with consumption of fluoride-contaminated foliage by juvenile livestock and wildlife in Europe and North America. For the first time, we explored the epidemiology and comparative pathology of dental fluorosis in Australian marsupials residing near an aluminium smelter. Six species (Macropus giganteus, Macropus rufogriseus, Wallabia bicolor, Phascolarctos cinereus, Trichosurus vulpecula, Pseudocheirus peregrinus) demonstrated significantly higher bone fluoride levels in the high (n=161 individ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Clare Death was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award Industry Scholarship in collaboration with Portland Aluminium, and the Holsworth Wildlife Endowment Fund. The funders are supportive of publication but had no role in study design or preparation of the manuscript.